The sound of muffled, distant voices from outside reaches my ears, and I freeze. My heart thumps painfully as the lock on the door jiggles, and I brace myself.
It’s now or never, Addie.
I hold up the plate, taking aim as my teeth grit. “Come and get me, mother fucker.”
When the door swings open, I throw with all my strength, watching as some big, familiar dude ducks, and the ceramic shatters behind him.
A woman I’ve met before with long black hair watches with amusement as her eyes light up. “New friend!”
Rowan lingers in the doorway, guilt turning his features downward as he stares at me.
“Staythe fuckaway from me! All of you!” I shout, my breathing turning into harsh pants as my chest heaves.
The big guy rights himself, shock blinking across his features as he holds up a finger. “One moment.”
He grabs my captor and the woman who looks like she’s frothing at the mouth before slamming the door and leaving me alone in the living room. My arms fall to my sides at the anti-climactic moment, and I blink at the door as an argument ensues outside.
I hear hyena laughter from the woman, Thalia, I presume, as if she’s heard the funniest joke ever. Then she peeks in through the window before a hand yanks her away by her collar.
The front door opens, and my guard shoots up as I take a step back. Rowan lingers in the doorway, arguing with his sister, who is fighting to get past him.
“Go home, Thalia,” he barks.
The dark-haired woman ignores him and side-steps his bulky figure as she points at me. “I’m gonna get you out of here!”
Hope sparks, and I open my mouth to thank her before she cements herself as delusional, too.
“You can stay with me!” She pushes against my captor, who holds her back over the threshold. “We can have sleepovers, and I’ll only lock you in my basement if you try to run!”
Rowan plants a hand over her face, pushing her back until she stumbles onto the porch. “Not helping!”
“Oh, come on!” She pleads, a wicked grin stretching her lips. “My basement is cooler than yours. Has she seen the interrogation shed yet? Show her that first!”
He grabs the door before slamming it closed in her face. He holds a hand to the wood, waiting until we hear her receding steps on the porch before his shoulders sag and hesighs.
He turns, something on the tip of his tongue, before I stop him.
“Fuck you!” I spit, my hand coming up to twist the chain around my throat. “What is this?! You drug me, kidnap me, bite me, and thencollarme? What kind of sick, twisted fantasy—”
He storms across the room, his long legs eating up the distance between us. He moves quicker than light, standing before me in three long strides before he grabs the chain and yanks it. It constricts around my throat as he leans down until we’re eye level.
“Make no fucking mistake, Sunshine.” He seethes. “If this were my fantasies, you would still be tied up, and writhing with so much pleasure you couldn’tspeak. You would be my plaything.” There’s a burning intensity to his eyes that pins me where I stand. Being this close to him, smelling his scent and feeling his skin against mine where his fist rests over the base of my neck, has my brain turning to complete mush. My lips quiver, my fight dying a quick and sudden death as we stare into each other. The heat in his gaze turns to liquid amber as his eyes soften a fraction. He reaches up with his free hand, brushing my hair away from my face as he tucks a strand behind my ear. “What are you doing to me, Addison?” His voice is quiet in the space between us, the deep timber making my eyes flutter. “Why do I want you so badly?”
Chapter Eighteen
Rowan
Fuck.
She feels amazing like this—pressed against me and at my mercy. I can still vividly remember the way her pussy pulsed and clenched around me in the woods, and while she was hazy on the drugs. It’s all I’ve been able to think about since I got her here.
She’shere.
In my home.
Seeing her in my space, wearing my collar, and that dreamy expression on her face makes my cock thicken. I’ve never wanted a woman so badly in my life that I’ve resorted to locking her away. Not until Addison Bright.
And I’ll never want another. It’s a striking realization I had to come to terms with during the last few hours of our trip while she dozed off the drugs pumping through her veins. All for the sake of having her here, I broke the one rule that was nonnegotiable. Ilostmyself. I let go of that thin thread tethering me to normalcy, so I could have her.
